Combatants Will Be Dispatched - Volume 7 - Chapter 5.1

Final Chapter - Being the Boss They Can Depend On...

1

In the woods near Gninade.

Having finishing putting up the tent. I sit down by the campfire and say to Alice:

“I’ve suspected it for a while, but I’m pretty sure Tiger Man is an idiot.”

“You think the people in Kisaragi are anything but morons? I don’t count, I’m an android.”

Then I don’t count because I’m an enhanced human.

Besides, it's going too far to say everyone’s an idiot. There’s still our last hope. Astaroth...

“Lady Astaroth’s the queen of the idiots, considering she’s the one who came up with the idea of forming an evil organization to take over the world. As for the second-biggest idiot, I nominate Lady Lilith.”

“Stop it, don’t anticipate what I’m trying to say. I’m pretty sure our Lady Lilith is number one by a pretty big margin.”

As Alice and I banter...

“This isn’t the time for this! How are we going to fix the gigantic mess we’re in now?!”

The candidate no one was expecting to win. Princess Nadia, the youngest of the three princelings, has ended up with the crown.

As for how it ended up this way, well, it's because all of our misdeeds were revealed to the public.

Namely, the fact that Tiger Man. the monster guilty of stealing the sorcery stone, is affiliated with us.

Tiger Man himself revealed that we were behind everything, from trying to frame Hiiragi for the theft by having the letter sent to Grunade, to the various underhanded tactics we used to ruin our opponent's reputations in the election.

As for why he did that—

“Honestly, I underestimated Tiger Man. I figured he was just a pervert who liked to meow and purr while admiring the lolis. I had no idea he'd be willing to risk everything, even his own life, for the sake of saving a little girl."

"That miscalculation is on me. I didn't expect Tiger Man to go that far. While gigantification is the ace in the hole for mutants to use to take superheroes with them when all else fails, it’s a last resort that costs the mutant years of lifespan. And not only did Tiger Man do that, he then went and turned himself in to make the princess win the crown. Honestly. I underestimated him. Tiger Man's the lolicon's lolicon. A real credit to his kind.”

To make Nadia queen. Tiger Man used the mutant’s trump card of gigantification to take a sorcery stone from a greater dragon living in the Midgard Mountains.

He then gave Nadia the sorcery stone before turning himself in to the authorities, revealing that he was part of our organization.

Thanks to his bombshell revelation, Lydia, who had pulled us into the election, lost almost all of her support, while the prince just couldn't stage enough of a comeback to boost his flagging poll numbers, and so...

"I didn't expect Russell to throw his support behind Princess Nadia, either. That pretty much settled the race.”

Russell is protecting Nadia from any threats at the moment.

He must have been influenced by Tiger Man’s dedication. Russell had enthusiastically campaigned for Nadia.

The image of a beautiful young maid helping the young princess was a hit with the populace.

What sealed the deal was when Adelie, one of the prince’s supporters, publicly outed Russell as a boy.

For some reason, that resulted in a massive surge of support from female voters and ended up settling the race in Nadia's favor.

This was despite the fact that Russell's technically part of Kisaragi. too...

"Well, it’s a star-studded cast, a young child princess with a cross-dressing handsome boy maid. To the people, the monarch is as much decoration as anything else. They want someone that looks good. After all. most of their lives won’t change much no matter who’s in charge.”

“I-I’d like to think things are a little better in Grace. I mean, people say a lot of things about Princess Tillis, but she’s popular with her citizens...”

At Alice’s cynical, world-weary observation, Rose can only mumble a less than confident defense.

"Still, what the hell are Tiger Man and Russell thinking? Even with Princess Nadia making a case for him, it’s only a matter of time before he's executed. Yes, he turned himself in, but what he did isn’t easily forgiven or forgotten."

“I mean. Tiger Man’s earned his fate, but with Snow and Heine still in jail, we can’t just leave...”

“Come on. Boss, let’s at least try to help Tiger Man. too...”

The situation is so bad that even Alice seems at a loss for what to do.

That, and there’s a reason we’re camping out here.

Rose detects something and turns her eyes toward the brush.

There’s some rustling from the other side, and appearing from between the bushes...

“Caught some wild Evil Points! Hey, Six. hurry and convert them to points! There’s quite a few others lurking around, but I brought all the ones I could carry.”

“Can we stop calling prisoners ‘points,’ please? Even I’m a little weirded out by that.”

I don’t know which faction they belong to, but Belial returns to camp carrying four of our pursuers.

Usually, being chased by an entire country should be a pretty perilous situation, but to Belial, it’s just an opportunity to farm some Evil Points by capturing soldiers from both factions.

As for converting them to points... How am I supposed to do that? Torture these soldiers wrapped in steel wire?

Alice suddenly bows her head to Belial.

“Lady Belial. I’m sorry for bringing you all the way from Earth only to end up in this mess. The way all of this has played out is my fault.”

“M-Miss Alice?”

Rose can’t help but be taken aback at Alice’s unusually meek and apologetic attitude.

“I didn’t expect things to go this thoroughly pear- shaped. I should take responsibility and go self- destruct in the middle of Grunade.”

“Hey, don’t even think about it! I told you that self- destructing is out of limits!”

I grab Alice by the collar to stop her. prompting a small chuckle from Belial.

“Alice, you overthink things because you’re so smart. Just take a simpler look at things.”

Belial smiles as she gently musses Alice’s hair.

Alice looks up at Belial through the mussing. It’s pretty clear Belial doesn’t have a good grasp of the situation.

“...You say that. Lady Belial, but the situation is thoroughly fubar. I have no idea what Tiger Man and Russell are thinking, while I’m sure Snow and Heine, who were in jail, have been taken hostage. The prince and princess are sure to put their differences aside for now. Thanks to Tiger Man's betrayal. Kisaragi has to deal with the Hiiragi Agency of Order and Grunade. while they've got hostages to use as bargaining...”

Belial holds up a hand to stop Alice mid-sentence.

She then nods as though she understands everything perfectly.

“So what? We just need to beam them all down at once.”

.....

“Hey, Six, help me with persuading Lady Belial. This Gordian knot of a siniation is going to take a while to explain.”

I look between the confidently smiling Belial and Alice with her troubled expression and come to a realization.

“Lady Belial's right. We’ve been worrying too much about the little kinks in the rope.”

“...Six?”

Alice evidently thought I would try to stop Belial and looks up at me with a quizzical expression.

“As Lady Belial says, we’re overthinking this. Why did we even try to hide Tiger Man’s crimes? It’s because it was too early to go to war with this country. Why were we trying to avoid fighting the Hiiragi Agency of Order? Because it was too early to have a proper scrap with them.”

At that, Alice falls silent, lapsing into thought as Belial continues to tussle her hair.

“...You mean with Lady Belial here, we can deal with the two countries combined on equal footing? ... True. What does it matter if Tiger Man confessed to being a member of Kisaragi? So what if they know we were behind all the election shenanigans? We’re an evil corporation! We don’t bother untying knots; we just cut through them! If they wanna complain, we’ll just face them straight on!”

“Yep. all we have to do is go on the diplomatic offensive with Lady Belial as our backup. The agents we sent out got those cities where Lady Belial went on a rampage to submit by threatening them, right? Then, it’s time for some gunboat diplomacy! That’s what you were trying to say, right. Lady Belial?”

There’s a reason she’s a Supreme Leader; she can take this tangled mess of a situation and...!

“Nope! Wrong!”

I can’t contain a surge of irritation as Belial laughs in response to my question.

“You’re still overthinking it. Kisaragi is an evil corporation bent on world domination. And there’s only one thing we do against our enemies.”

As we stay silent, Belial playfully smiles and declares:

“Invade!”